Winemaker Notes
The 2011 Reserve opens with aromas of baked pear, caramel apple, honey, graham cracker and cinnamon toast that gain complexity with touches of marzipan and dried orange peel. Bright flavors of apricot and peach crumble are supported with a fresh acidity on the palate and finish with toasty nuances of glazed orange, ginger and grilled pineapple.
Blend: 80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Full-on autolysis steals the stage here with near-nutty tones and toasted bread well ahead of what is now but vestigial fruit. The wine is extremely rich yet is also splendidly balanced, and, while not at all concerned with fruity brightness at this point in its life, it is enlivened by boundless, very fine bubbles. It wears its years with a great deal of grace even if it is beginning to dry just a bit at the edges, and it is a first-rate example of a well-aged cuvée that is certain to satisfy discerning fans of the style.
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Wine Enthusiast
Complexity and seamlessness are the hall-marks of this elegant, crisp and well-aged wine made from 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. From aromas of toasted walnut and ginger to tangy white-peach, almond and tamarind flavors, this layered and creamy-textured sparkler builds great interest and ends with a lingering finish. Best from 2023. Cellar Selection.
In 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies founded Schramsberg and set out to make world-class sparkling wine in the true méthode traditionelle style on the property originally established in 1862 by German immigrant Jacob Schram. There were only 22 bonded wineries in Napa Valley and fewer than 100 acres of California vineyards planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Schramsberg was the first California winery to provide a Blanc de Blancs in 1965 followed by a Blanc de Noirs in 1967. Now their son, Hugh Davies, leads the winery’s management and winemaking team.
The Schramsberg estate in Napa Valley’s famed Diamond Mountain District is a registered historic landmark with Napa’s first caves, hand-dug in the 1880s, and its first hillside vineyards. Quality focus drives all aspects of wine production starting with access to over 120 cool-climate sites in Carneros, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma, which result in over 200 separate lots. Unique among California sparkling wine houses, Schramsberg ferments about 25 percent of its juice in oak barrels to produce rich, flavorful, complex wines.
Most of Schramsberg’s viticultural and winemaking practices are carried out by hand: grapes are hand harvested, the wines are handcrafted, and the bottles are stacked and riddled in underground caves. The family and the winery embody excellence and innovation in winemaking, as well as preservation of their land, their history and their community.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.